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Thanks to my eldest daughter Grace for this. 

Alexander Fleming (Scottish) is attributed with the discovery of Penicillin in 1928, although others had been working on this for some time, as is often the case in these circumstances.

Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 in conjunction with his colleagues Florey and Chain. Fleming discovered Penicillin by accident while he was investigating the properties of a specific bacteria. The story goes that it was attributed to an untidy laboratory due to his brilliant but unorganised mind.

A similar story relates to the discovery of dental implants incidentally.

As well as discovering Penicillin, perhaps more notably Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin resistance and even discussed this phenomenon and the significance of it in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Despite the warnings from the inventor, it is reported that the US Military were prescribing 2 million courses of Prophylactic (just in case) doses of Penicillin a year by that stage.

The risk of antibiotic resistance to human life is significant but is not new and by 2014 the World Health Organisation were reporting that “this serious threat is no longer a predication for the future it is happening right now in every region of the world”. They reported it as “a major threat to public health”. I was first introduced to the concept in early 2000 by Mike Martin who (in my circles at least) was a legendary dental microbiologist.

He travelled the country preaching the resistance gospel and trying to get General Dental Practitioners to stop prescribing antibiotics for their own benefits and not for the population as a whole.

I would love to think that this has had a difference and has reduced the impact of antibiotic resistance, but as we continue to give it in low doses to cows routinely to increase the yield of milk, and still routinely give it to people with coughs and colds, I suspect that is not the case. It is perhaps too late now for antibiotic resistance as the genie is out of the bottle. The ability to make some synthetic antibiotics to counter Penicillin resistance is reducing and the increase in incidents of resistant antibiotic strains is increasing.

Perhaps the next time we have the opportunity to protect our “golden goose” and limit the use of a new found extraordinary medicine that benefits humanity, we will ration it a little bit better and prescribe it a little bit less selfishly… but I doubt it.

Blog post number: 1469